Waynesboro industrial site to get a $2.5 million renovation

An industrial site in Waynesboro that until 2010 was home to two large carpet manufacturers will get a makeover. Delphine Enterprise Management said Wednesday that it is partnering with Legacy Group Holding Corp., a local real estate developer, to rehabilitate the 464,000-square-foot office, warehousing and manufacturing facility.

Rebecca Polan, president of Allied Logistics, the parent company of Delphine Enterprise, said the project includes $1.5 million for the 22-acre site and another half a million for improvements.
For more than 50 years the site, which has been renamed the Delphine Enterprise Center, was home to carpet manufacturers Wayn-Tex LLC and later Mohawk Industries, which closed in 2010. At their height, the companies employed hundreds of area residents.

“Delphine Enterprise Center is a perfect example of a private company seizing an opportunity that revives industry and holds the potential for more and better work in Waynesboro,” Gov. Bob McDonnell, said in a statement.

Allied Logistics, based in Huntingon, W.Va., has a long history of revitalizing industrial sites. Since purchasing the former General Electric and Genicom facility in Waynesboro nearly a decade ago, Allied rebranded the 340,000-square-foot building as an office, manufacturing and distribution complex known as Solutions Place. Today, it’s a commercial hub for nearly 15 companies.

Last year PPI/Time-Zero invested in a $1.1 million expansion at Solutions Place, bringing 65 new high-tech manufacturing jobs to Waynesboro. “We want to emulate the success we’ve created at Solutions Place and continue attracting high-tech manufacturing jobs in industries like defense or bioscience,” Polan said in a statement. “Right off the bat we will use Delphine Enterprise Center for warehousing, and, after some rehabilitation, we believe it will be an attractive site for a variety of businesses.”

Mathers Construction Team, a local company and the property’s first tenant, will oversee the rehabilitation. “My father helped build this facility back in Waynesboro’s manufacturing heyday, and now I’ll get to help bring it back to life, which is a unique experience,” David Gauldin II, executive vice president of Mathers Construction, said in a statement.